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S. BURTON & O. H. WILLGOX.

ART OF MANUFACTURING HOSIERY.

NO 255.579. Patented Mar. 28,1882.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

STOCKTON BORTON, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, AND OHZRLES H. VVILLGOX, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNORS TO THE WILLOOX & GIBBS SEWING MACHINE COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N.

ART OF MANUFACTURING HOSlERY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 255,579, dated March 28, 1882.

Application filed April 4, 1881.

To all whom 21. may concern: Be it known that we, STOCKTON Bonron, of Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, and CHARLES HENRY WILLGOX, of New York city, county, and State, have invented a new and useful Improvement in the Art of Manufacturing Hosiery, which improvemcntis fully set forth in the following specification.

In the manufacture of hosiery the plan pursued with the best quality of goods has been to knit the several parts with selvage edges and unite them by an overseam. With goods of an inferior quality, commonly known as cut hose, the expenditure of time and labor involved in this plan has been avoided by cutting the pieces from a sheet of knit material and stitching them together on a sewing-machine. Ordinarily a chain-stitch machine is employed, and the seams, which are made with very long and rather loose stitches-say about seven to the inch-are formed at a considerable distance from the edges, partly because it is impracticable to sew very close to the raw edges of knit goods, but also and mainly to make a strong seam, not liable to be destroyed by raveling at the edges of the fabric. The margin thus left outside the seam is very objectionable and detracts from the value of the goods. To produce cut hose of a superior quality the pieces have been united by an overseam,.eit-her on a button-hole machine or on a machine making a zigzag lock-stitch, one stitch within the fabric and the next beyond the edge. They have also been united by a zigzag stitch entirely within the fabric, the edges being trimmed or cleared close to the outer row of stitches by a shearing attachment that operates simultaneously with the sewing mechanism, so as to trim the fabric as it is advanced by the feed of the machine. The button-hole and zigzag forms of stitch have been employed in order to prevent raveling, and also to enable a firm and sufficiently close seam to be produced. The mechanism for forming these stitches is necessarily slower in operation than that for forming a straight-ahead seam, and in the finished article the stitching is at a distance from the edge equal to or greater than the lateral movement of the fab- (No model ric or needle in sewing, and there is an appreciable ridge or welt.

In this invention astraigh t-ahead seam, preferably with a chain-stitch, which can be run with the greatest rapidity, is made, and as the pieces are sewed together the edges are mechanically cleared or trimmed by an attachment to the sewing machine, close to and parallel to the seam. The stitches are tight or well drawn up and short, about equal in length to the gage of the fabric-that is, to the distance from center to center of the knit loopsor not materially greater than said gage. Knit goods thus manufactured are superior in appearance and equal or superior in durability to those having the cut edges united by an overseam,or to the machine-cleared goods sewed with a zigzag stitch, and approximately equal to the so-called regularmade goodswith selvage edges. By making the stitches about equal in length tothe gage of thefabric theyinclose only a few threads--say one or two corresponding threads on each of the two edges to be unitedand beingdrawn tighter than couldbedone with along stitch they hold the threads firmly, so that a margin is unnecessary to secure the permanence of the seam. The edges can therefore be trimmed as closely as possible to the seam, since so long as the stitches are not cut its strength is not seriously impaired. It is not necessary that the stitches should be exactly the gage of the fabric.

The seam may be made with the lock or other suitable form of stitch; but the chain-stitch is preferred, because it is elastic and is similar in its nature to the goods themselves, because the loops surround the knit threads after the fashion of a running noose, and thus bind them very tightly, and because the strength and regularityof theseam initseli' are less affected than a lock-stitch by the formation of stitches in the interstices of the fabric without the interposition of the knit threads. The edges bein g closely trimmed, the seam has substantially the thickness of the rest of the article, and there is not the objectionable ridge or welt formed in the ordinary cut hose. The character of the seam, due to its being straight ahead and to theme of stitches not materially greater than the gage of the fabric, in connection with the regular and close trimming of the edges, gives to the improved machine-cleared hosiery an appearance very different from anything heretofore produced and renders it in quality superior to other out hose.

The accompanying drawings, which form a part of this specification, illustrate the seam made in accordance with this invention, Figure 1 being a side view, and Fig. 2 a cross-section. In Fig. 1 the fabric is shown enlarged, and the threads are represented by plain lines A in order that they maybe clcarl y distinguished.

' A chain-stitch seam is shown.

The knit fabric is represented by a and the seam by b.

In manufacturing the improved hosiery the well-known Willcox 85 Gibbs sewing-machine, which uses a single thread and makes a chainstitch by means of a revolving hook or looper, is employed, and preferably the automatic machine provided with an automatic or intermittent tension; but any of the ordinary forms of lock-stitch machines which complete each stitch independently can be used.

A shearing attachment or trimmer of any suitable construction can be used to trim or clear the edges of the goods; but the trimmer described in an application for Letters Patent made by us and filed October 14, 1880, is considered best adapted to the purpose.

The size of the thread and needles will of course be adapted to the particular character of the fabric to besewed, as is well understood by operators skilled in using the VVillcox 85 Gibbs machine, and the feed and other parts of the machine requiring adjustment will also be regulated according to the circumstances of the case.

specification, is to be understood a seam,

whether curvilinear or straight, formed by a seriesof stitches following each other in substantially the same direction, in contra-distinction to a scam in which the stitches alternately deviate from the general direction of the seam and make what is known as azigzag stitch.

We claim- 1. The improvement in the art of manufacturing hosiery consisting in sewing the seam or seams with straight-ahead stitches equal or approximately equal in length to the gage of the fabric, substantially as described.

2. The method of uniting hosiery so as to form with rapidityand economy strong closelytrimmed seams by running on a sewing-machine straight-ahead seams of stitches equal or approximately equal in length to the gage of the fabric, and simultaneously with the sewing operation trimming off the exeess'of material beyond the scam in acontinuous manner, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof we have signed this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

STOCKTON BORTON. CHARLES H. WILLOOX.

Witnesses:

PHILIP MAURO, O. J. HEDRICK. 

